Talk:Assault Cannon/@comment-3065360-20140123114315/@comment-4391208-20140124040457
>>11907 I was actually leaning more towards there not being any existing systems using the 37mm round by the time the BETA came about, actually. Most mechanized systems using 37mm seem to have fallen out of use by the end of the 1950s, and modern 37mm systems are all riot-stoppers. This is in contrast to the Bofors, which was kept in popular use, and was therefore maintained. If you factor in the Muv-Luv backstory with a "Great Demilitarization" sometime in the 1960s, you could also expect them not developing any new weapons or systems to use the round. During the 1974 era, the Soviets had their 2nd-gen aircraft-mounted N-37 and the post-WWII AA turret 61-K, and realistically speaking, you could reasonably expect engineers to have ripped the N-37s out as jury-rigged turrets when it was clear that putting them on MiGs would be a waste of money post-1974, but at the end the Soviets brought modified US systems specced to US support hardware; in the throes of an alien wave battle, the Soviets probably never bothered to rush headlong into developing their own unique gun systems like they did in the Cold War. With the eventual standardization of the round into 36mm/120mm, the Soviets never got the chance to, either. Personally, I find that them not settling on the 35mm round type more baffling, seeing as the realw-world Oerlikon gun was first in production as early as in the 1950s. The same round is even in modern use in UL/Alt.; the Type-87 SPAAG uses it, and all indications seem to paint it as just the right size for Tank-class killing. If they had used 35mm, they'll be saving a lot more money as well. Still, after looking it through, I think the issue is more on how the Muv-Luv world sees the Assault Cannon equivalent. To them, the AC is a gunpod, and therefore, how it was developed would also be linked to aircraft gun development, and subsequently, their caliber choosing would also be affected by previous gun calibers for aircraft cannons (the largest being 20mm on US aircraft guns), and not calibers from other types of guns. Naturally, they wouldn't ask the Soviets what round size they preferred, and the Americans developing the 20mm as a chaingun system, as compared to the 37mm's autocannon system, would be a likely point of contention as well. Whether they settled on 36mm because the American engineers found something nice or because Kooki drew a number ballot while writing Integral Works, well, I'll get back to you on that when I get a crack at the interview transcripts in IW, because the infomation sections on Assault Cannons never specified why they started at 20mm/105mm, or why they moved to 36mm/120mm. >>11912 Not really seeing a purpose for a Squad Support Weapon when the Assault Cannons can already go fully automatic, and the US doesn't engage in the same prolonged warfare that the Europeans do. Well, the US has had a record of buying pretty good hardware from the Europeans, so they could just save themselves some R&D money for homing missile development and buy a local-production license for the Mk. 57 instead.